Parents at the Hong Kong Book Fair are spending thousands on educational books and media for their children, with some forking out up to HKD50,000.
Educational books ranked as the best seller on Wednesday, the first day of the annual book fair at Wan Chai’s Convention Centre, reports Apple Daily.
The most popular English-language books on sale were the Oxford University Press’ Oxford Path series and Disney’s World of American English (DWE).
DWE’s starter edition costs HKD20,000, while a set of Oxford Path books – which includes smart pens, colouring books and CDs – can ring in at HKD48,000.
Some parents see their purchase as preparing their kids for the future. A new mother said she hoped the Oxford Path kit could boost up her toddler’s self-confidence.
“You know it is good just by its name!” she told Apple Daily.
Claudia Mo from the Civic Party said, however, that parents shouldn’t need to buy massses of education tools, but should spend more time with their children and teach by example instead.
She added that the tools are irrelevant and can merely pile extra stress onto children.
“Some of these [books] teach ‘S for Squirrel’, but the children will forget the week after since there is hardly a squirrel in Hong Kong”, she said.
Hong Kong has some of the world’s best-performing students – the city came third behind Shanghai and Singapore in the PISA ranking in 2012 – yet the stress levels children endure during their education have raised concerns.
An advertisement in April from the cram school Ever Learning featured a picture of a toddler in clear distress and the foreboding slogan, “You don’t like competition? Competition will find you!”
Another cram school went further, suggesting that missing out on their summer course would result in children living in poor areas instead of affluent districts, as Hong Kong Free Press reported.
Photo: Apple Daily screengrab
